Editors' Review

Irfan View is a compact and powerful photo editing program that gives you the tools to touch up and add effects to your photos. You can set images as your desktop wallpaper directly from the app, and put the finishing touches on all your photos with just a few clicks.

Pros

Convenient help: When you open Irfan View for the first time, a Web page also opens displaying a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the app. The information found here can help you navigate just about any process or situation you encounter when using the app. You can access this page again at any time from the Help menu.

Hot key configurations: Also in the Help menu, you'll find a listing of all of the preset hot keys the program contains. This list is extensive and covers just about every operation Irfan View can carry out. So once you learn the hot keys for your favorite operations, you'll be breezing through editing projects in no time.

Cons

Some limitations: With all of the functions this app provides for editing and manipulating images, it would be nice if it was possible to undo more than a single layer or to preview certain changes before you make them.

Drop-down navigation: There are multiple tools lined up across the top of the main app interface for easy access, but these mostly have to do with opening, saving, and similar operations. For all types of photo editing tools, you have to access the drop-down Image menu above the toolbar. This aspect of the interface requires more steps than we'd like, but once you learn hot keys for your most-used features, it won't be such a limitation.

Bottom Line

Overall, this is a great free program for photo editing, viewing, converting, and for slideshow creation. It works fast, and its super-streamlined installation process means you'll be editing photos before you know it.

I use it for viewing and it woks beautifully.Far better than standard Windows viewing software ; more versatile, less fussy, simple. It has editing features and plug-ins available to do more than just viewing. For me, it's a must-have viewer.

Displays images
No color distortion like you get in Windows Photo Viewer

Cons

Missing basic functions of other photo viewers

Summary

Firstly, this isn't a photo editor, I don't know why it's listed as such on this site. It's an image viewer. It even says on the IrfanView website that it's an image viewer. I downloaded this because I wanted something better than the default Windows Photo Viewer, which distorts colors in the images it displays. This doesn't do that. However, it's also missing a lot of basic functions that a lot of other photo viewers have. Firstly, there's no fine control for image viewing size. Like most photo viewers, it automatically puts larger stuff up at "page fit" size. There are buttons to increase or decrease the viewing size, or you can hold Ctrl and use the mouse heel, but there's no fine control. Both methods jump up and down in certain increments. Somehow, they miss 100%. It jumps from 90-something to over 100 every time. This isn't good for people who want to view an image at its exact size. There's also no button to display an image at 100%, like most photo viewers have. Lastly, when it's at the beginning or end of a folder, if you hit back at the beginning or forward at the end, it doesn't go to the last or first image respectively, like a lot of photo viewers do. Instead, it tries to jump into a sub folder, even when none exist. To me, due to these issues, this software is very unintuitive and entirely overrated.

Everything else that a file could possibly be or do that wasn't listed under "pros"

Summary

Do you like editing images? Do you want to paste/use your keyboard/crop/change colors while editing your image? If your answers were yes and no, then download away! If you have half a mind, then don't download this scum. Irfanview made me want to commit seppuku while having my tonsils removed by a rusty hook infected with ebola. You can't paste, double clicking screws everything up, you can't crop, the window's jenky, etc. But of course you can learn how to use it with tutorials, right? HAHAHAHHAHA no. There are maybe 3 tutorials online out of the 5 people who actually use this ****, and they're either in Hindi or obvious **** like "download it and use it to do the thing hurr durr". I feel so betrayed. Don't do this to yourself.

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